Fabien Cousteau: Becoming A Shark - Part I
Posted By Nicolas Danan on 11 March 2004
So from what I heard Fabien Cousteau is about to become a Shark? Tell me more.
Fabien smiles and explains: when I was a kid inspired by the comic strip “Tintin et le trésor de Rackam le rouge” I had decided I wanted to become a shark!
(Quick note for those of you not familiar with this famous European comic
strip. In this episode , the Hero “Tintin” search the ocean floor for a
treasure by the mean of a sub that looks like a shark)
I took the idea of childhood and made it real in the adult world. By melting together both the ecological perspective and conservation idea with my fantasy of always wanting to be “intermingled” and try to be as much of a shark as possible I decided to build a submarine that would look, move and potentially behave like a great white shark. It made for perfect sense to create an expedition to go study great white sharks up-close and personal.
And beyond that, to study their cognition, their intelligence because that is the root of what our misconceptions are of the sharks targeting us as food. Drawing out this expedition I decided to focus on and study certain shark behaviors: the predatory behavior their feeding habits, their agonistic behavior which is basically their territoriality, and their hierarchy within themselves. Also their curious investigation which is when they come by and check you out or come and brush up against something to feel what it is, whether or not it might be a food source. And their combative behavior, their territoriality and “hunching of the back” signs that it is time to exit their area before they actually attack and become aggressive toward each other. It goes on from there to “social grabbing”, sexual behaviors and finally random encounters behavior.
How do you go about becoming a shark? What are the technical aspects of it?
The idea is to create a shark submarine. And not just a sub that goes with sharks but a sub that looks, acts, moves, feels, and even is anatomically similar to an adult great white shark. We now have the shark semi built. It is 14 feet long with stainless steel ribbing to hold the structure of the “shark”. It has a material called “skin flex” on the outside which is usually used for animatronics such as dinosaurs or robotuna from MIT and even used in the movie ET! It is a really flexible rubber material that feels a lot like skin and we can modify it to feel like shark skin. It is flexible so when the propulsion system of the Shark sub is engaged it looks real!
The propulsion system is a closed circuit pneumatic system which dumps high pressure air through cylinders into an empty cylinder, which in turn powers the tail of the sub in a way that is really organic. So it will move exactly like a shark. And of course by being a closed circuit system no bubbles will come out. On the other hand it is a wet sub; I will be inside wearing a closed circuit rebreather and a dry suit.
I will use a joystick and LCD monitors to control both the sub and the high definitions camera located in the eyes of the shark sub. Last but not least I will have a full face mask with communication system relayed to the surface.
What was the technical inspiration?
Very good question and a really complicated one. Again we are dealing with something that has never been done before. The bases I started from were Eddy Paul’s shark that he built way back in 1987 for my grandfather’s and father’s expedition. It pioneered the idea in to use a pneumatic system to motor the shark sub. Comparatively, that shark was rather crude, made in two weeks. It was unmanned and tethered to a cage had an open circuit pneumatic system that gave off bubbles. As a matter of fact I can show you some pictures of it!
Fabien opened a notebook where he had some pictures of the Calypso back in the days. Fabien explained that after a few days of shooting the sharks had accepted this rather interesting specimen as one of their school, the dive team on the Calypso “probably getting bored” decided to make the robotic shark act erratic and ” injured”. Consequently, a large female turned on the shark and gave it a “death blow” which is a bite to the gills. She came back for several more and completely destroyed the robotic shark.
Next Week: Fabien talks more about depth, sea trials and his dive team
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